Ridley Scott has insisted time and time again that the Prometheus franchise does not directly connect with the Alien franchise, or at least it won't for another two or three films. But with the revelation that his Prometheus sequel would be called Alien: Paradise Lost, many wondered exactly how the film would be connected to the Alien series, and whether the film would affect the fate of Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5. Now, Scott has clarified that Blomkamp's film is definitely still happening, and teased a connection between Alien: Paradise Lost and the iconic Ripley character, played by Sigourney Weaver.

"I'm producing it," Scott told Empire Online. "The design is for it to go out next, after this. This will go out first. It's more associated with Ripley, it's a completely different angle, it's more of a sequel. I'm coming in from the back end... I've got connections with Ripley [in this], but I'm not telling you what."

So apparently, Paradise Lost will not only connect to the Alien mythology, but to the character of Ripley, which is a much more direct link between the franchises. And speaking of the Alien mythology, he finally confirmed that we will definitely see a Xenomorph again at some point in the Prometheus series:

"I think I have to go again," he said. "We will see who made it, and why. That's what's interesting."

I'm not sure what to make of this, but it sounds fairly confusing. Prometheus will remain a prequel, as far as we know, so I can't imagine that Ripley will actually show up in the series. Alien: Resurrection introduced the idea of Ripley clones, but it seems that we're mostly pretending that monstrosity doesn't exist.

We don't have too many plot details for Alien: Paradise Lost so far, except that Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and the android David (Michael Fassbender) will travel to the planet of the Engineers in order to discover exactly how they are related to the origins of humanity. Originally, Prometheus was to be called "Paradise" after the Engineers' planet, and although Scott didn't confirm that the planet would be called Paradise, he heavily implied that it was a possibility:

"Years ago, I kept mulling over what Alien 2 could be. I was fiddling around with some ideas. I was always fascinated with why this thing [the xenomorph] would be made, by whom, and for what purpose? The planet it was on – and I was looking at the dark side of the moon – would be called Paradise. Paradise is a very ominous word... In a way it is Prometheus 2. It's exactly the same story. But it was always in the works to be called that [Alien: Paradise Lost]."

And incidentally, as it turns out, Michael Fassbender's character won't spend the entire film as a disembodied head, as was his state at the end of Prometheus:

"It's going to be better than that," said Scott. "It's a very nice big idea I've got. It's really great. You're going to have to wait..."

Alien: Paradise Lost is slated to come out sometime in 2017, which likely means that Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5 will hit theaters in 2018.